I do not recommend this book. However, there are some excerpts from it that I wish to preserve.






Individuals may be superior. Some societies may demonstrate superiority. But all is transient.








Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.

- The Apocrypha of Arrakis




[

Hm. Punctuation could make this more parsable.

Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask "Why?". Be cautious with "How?". "Why?" leads inexorably to paradox. "How?" traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.

- The Apocrypha of Arrakis

]






Forces that we cannot understand permeate our universe. We see the shadows of those forces when they are projected upon a screen available to our senses, but understand them we do not.

[...]

Understanding requires words. Some things cannot be reduced to words. There are things which can only be experienced wordlessly.




[Note: Things cannot be fully described, only outlined.]






Technology, in common with many other activities, tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. Capital investment follows this rule since people generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.
- Assessment of Ix,
Bene Gesserit Archives








Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order.








So logic had been known to fail.




[Note: I'll rewrite this as: "Logic has been known to fail."]






Quite naturally, holders of power wish to suppress "wild" research. Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing unwanted competition. The powerful want a "safe line of investigations" which will develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be captured by inside investors. Unfortunately, a random universe full of relative variables does not ensure such a "safe line of investigations".
- Assessment of Ix,
Bene Gesserit Archives








Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation which produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept?
- A Guide to Trial and Error
in Government: Bene Gesserit Archives








Man is but a pebble dropped in a pool.

[...]

And if man is but a pebble, then all his works can be no more.








It is your fate, forgetfulness. All of the old lessons of life, you lose and gain and lose and gain again.
- Leto II, the
Voice of Dar-es-Balat








There was a man who sat each day looking out through a narrow vertical opening where a single board had been removed from a tall wooden fence. Each day a wild ass of the desert passed outside the fence and across the narrow opening - first the nose, then the head, the forelegs, the long brown back, the hindlegs and lastly the tail. One day, the man leaped to his feet with the light of discovery in his eyes and he shouted for all who could hear him: "It is obvious! The nose causes the tail!"
- Stories of the Hidden Wisdom
from the Oral History of Rakis








Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well.
- Leto II, His voice -
From Dar-es-Balat








Memory never recaptures reality. Memory reconstructs. All reconstructions change the original, becoming external frames of reference which inevitably fall short.
- Mentat Handbook








When strangers meet, great allowance should be made for differences of custom and training.
- The Lady Jessica,
From "Wisdom of Arrakis"








The worst potential competition for any organism can come from its own kind. The species consumes necessities. Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount. The least favourable condition controls the rate of growth. (Law of the Minimum)

- From "Lessons of Arrakis"








Justice? Who asks for justice. We make our own justice. We make it here on Arrakis - win or die. Let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them.
- Leto 1: Bene Gesserit Archives








There is no need to understand these forces before using them to shape the physical universe. Ancient metal workers had no need to understand the molecular and submolecular complexities of their steel, bronze, copper, gold and tin. They invented mystical powers to describe the unknown while they continued to operate their forges and wield their hammers.
- Mother Superior Taraza,
Argument in Council








To know the meaning you had to go through the experience and even then the meaning changed before your eyes.















I have a paper copy of Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert in my possession.

Some details from the first few pages:
- First published in Great Britain in 1984 by Victor Gollancz Ltd
- Copyright © 1984 by Frank Herbert

I transcribed the excerpts above manually, using a weight on top of the book to keep the pages flat.